Many avid sports fans have different ideas about what defines a great rivalry. There’s no doubt that there are some great rivalries around the world, from the New York Yankees/Red Sox to a Real Madrid/FC Barcelona soccer match. There’s no actual formula to weighing whether one rivalry is bigger than another, due to a variety of factors surrounding the game. However, I feel there are certain criteria that define the overall intensity of the game and it’s this standard that makes a rivalry special. This article discusses my thoughts and how I feel the term is thrown around a little loosely these days.
First of all, a sports rivalry is defined in Wikipedia as “an intense competition between athletic teams or athletes. This pressure of competition is felt by players, coaches, and management, but is perhaps felt strongest by the fans.” I couldn’t agree more. Despite what the players bring to the game, it is the fans, the same people that wait in the rain to get tickets and spend countless hours discussing their team with others that fuel a rivalry. Fans can take a game from one extreme to the other, whether it’s passively watching a game or causing serious violence over the outcome of a game. This is common in soccer matches where riot squads are required to come in and tend to the fighting and rioting.
With that said, I’d like to concentrate most of this article on the players, the ones who actually perform. You’re probably not going to like what I’m going to say and I’m more than likely going to offend your view of the passion that surrounds a rivalry. Here is my list of factors that determine whether or not your favorite teams are involved in a rivalry:
A rivalry is not a rivalry when money is involved.
This is unfortunately true and this does include the great professional sports games that many people like to deem “rivalries” such as the Yankees/Red Sox and Colts/Patriots. I believe that college athletics offer the best rivalry games based on the fact that both the players and the fans are after the same thing, pride. In professional sporting events, players are involved in salary negotiations and are looking to make money; however, the fans are the only ones that don’t see the dollar signs. There’s got to be a mixture of both, folks. Money adds a certain element to the sport that demeans the word “rivalry.” For instance, if Alex Rodriguez from the Yankees loses a game against the Red Sox, he goes home to his posh New York City apartment that overlooks Central Park and supermodel girlfriend. Do you honestly think cares he just lost a game to the so-called “rival” when he’s stepping into his $200,000 Ferrari? Maybe the fans are hurting and making their way to the bar, but again it’s not all about the fans. The players must feel pride from the name on the front of their jersey, not the wallet in their back pocket. In a real college sports rivalry, players or fans could not imagine pulling or playing for their rival team. In their eyes, it’s equal to committing a sin.
Still not convinced, Yankees fans? In December 2005, Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon, a fan-favorite during his four years in Boston, signs a four-year, $52 million contract with the Yankees, joining Boggs and Roger Clemens as the most high-profile players who left Boston and eventually ended up playing with New York in recent years. As a native of North Carolina and a fan of the Tar Heels/Blue Devils rivalry, this is a mockery of what defines a “rivalry.” A player from Carolina would never possibly consider a transfer to the dark side. What was Damon’s motivation for the switch? I’m guessing it’s perhaps the 52 million reasons he has to do it. Once money like that is involved, it is no longer a sport. It is a business.
Teams must be close in proximity.
In using my Tar Heel/Blue Devil example, those two universities are eight miles apart. This means that fans and students bump into each other literally every single day, whether it is at the local coffee house or bar. Personally if two teams are several states away from one another then the fans don’t know what it’s like to always be in a hostile environment. Geographical proximity and frequent meetings between fans and players always leads to a great rivalry and that’s why you see so many in state college athletics rivalries.
Ratings mean absolutely nothing.
Any fan of a team that has a significantly large fan base will make the argument that a series like the Yankee/Red Sox series is bigger and better because it is larger. Of course they have higher ratings. However, population size and ratings do not mean that the rivalry is on a grander scale. Most fans of college athletics are more passionate about their team, being that most of them either attended the school or grew up down the road from the university. They can associate with the team and it brings up memories of a time from when they used to roam the campus. Numbers are numbers. Rivalries are about passion. Doesn’t passion fuel rivalries? For instance, there are millions of people that watched the Super Bowl this year but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they were passionate about the game?
The purity of college athletics.
There’s something so pure about college athletics. These kids are right out of high school and are at the point where they are developing as players and young men. To see their progress and eyes light up when they step into a rival opponent’s stadium, I just don’t think you could replicate that kind of excitement in a sport that’s tainted by lock outs, salary negotiations, and steroid testing.
Still not convinced, Red Sox fans? I’ve got more. My point here is that it is the level of play that defines a rivalry. It’s the difference between playing a sport for pride and for $50 million dollars that keeps a player from turning it up that extra notch. For instance, how many loose balls do you see NBA players diving at on the floor compared to that of a college game? They’re being paid boat loads of money so they don’t have to do it. A Red Sox or Yankees fan can not possibly make the argument that Manny Ramirez’s effort on the field to hustle to a ball resembles that of Tyler Hansbrough’s from Carolina’s will to get to the basket. With that said, in the 2004 ALCS comeback, it’s not as if the Red Sox were just going to lay down their bats and give up. Of course they wanted to get to the World Series, they get bonuses for reaching that far!
I agree that there are certain exceptions to this argument. I remember Curt Schilling and the bloody sock in the 2004 ALCS Championship. I believe Derek Jeter plays hard the entire game and he’d be in the MLB despite whether he was making $40 million or $40,000. I know the comeback in the ALCS Championship in 2004 showed a lot of heart from the Red Sox team, but keep in mind that there’s a competitive nature in all of us. Survival is something embedded into every individual and this certainly translates on the field.
Quality not quantity.
In the MLB and NBA, teams play up to twenty times during the regular season. In any college platform, whether it’s football or basketball, play up to two or three times at the most. Fans of professional sports are spoiled like an only child with endless toys. Could a Yankees fan imagine if they only faced the Red Sox twice a year? Those two games would be so crucial that a Yankees fan could not even wrap their head around it. When a fan can’t remember each and every rivalry game because they’ve played so many, well, then what you’re watching is not called a rivalry. I’m sorry I had to break the news.
